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She stopped, hand on the door.
“That’s the thing. You say you don’t care, but if you expect me to warm your bed and wait around for you day in day out, well. That’s not for me. I don’t want to be fragile. I want to be woken up and taken seriously. Bye, Roman. I’m sure I’ll see you around. I’ll have Parks call your people if we figure things out.”
SIXTEEN
emilee
This waswhat a coffee shop was like alone. I could just people watch. Turns out I don’t much like people.
I held onto the cup for as long as I could before the heat built and I had to put it down. I was alive. Even if I really wasn’t sure I felt like I was. The pain in my chest made even drinking the latte I’d ordered impossible. Everything tasted wrong.
But marrying a man because he wanted to control me? That was wrong too. Waking up to an empty bed shouldn’t have bothered me. I was rational enough to know that. But it had. It had bothered me and in he walked with blood splatter and a smile on his face.
Fuck him and his stupid smile.
I blew on the latte again and contemplated life as I waited.
The latte seemed to have cooled finally, and I was able to sip at it. I thought it would taste better out here on my own. Strange. It just tasted normal.
I thought that I would do something great with Daddy’s company and yet Parks and Roman had done the restructure. I smiled at the memory of the few things I’d done. It had felt so amazing to help. I wanted to help more.
I put the cup down and stared at it. It wasn’t getting any better; I don’t think I actually liked lattes.
Maybe I didn’t really even like Roman. Maybe I’d just thought I would. My eyes burned. Oh, hell. The pain at just the thought of him sure as hell said I did at least have a taste for him. But love? Did I actually know what that was? I thought I did for a few moments there.
I loved Gertie. I loved Parks. When I thought about my future, the idea of going home to only them though? And Parks had Halle now. It just seemed empty.
“Miss. How is your coffee?”
I looked up into the innocent green eyes of a male server. He had a rag over his shoulder and an empty plate in one hand.
“Uh, I don’t know. I don’t think I like the flavor very much.”
He smiled, and I realized he was probably around my age, but somehow he’d escaped the shit I’d seen.
“You got a chi latte, right?”
I shrugged. “That sounds right.”
There was that smile again. “I’ll be right back. I think I have something you’ll like better.” He even winked at me. That seemed inappropriate, but whatever. I needed something to help contemplate life.
My phone buzzed again. I hadn’t even bothered taking it out of my purse. What was the point? I knew who it was. I didn’t even have any real friends. I supposed Halle was, but it wasn’t like I got to choose her.
“Hey, here you go. Chai isn’t for everyone. This is just a good old vanilla latte. If you still don’t like it, maybe espresso isn’t your thing. You okay?”
I took the cup from him, forgetting I still wore Roman’s ring.
“That’s a nice ring.” He looked around. “I’m guessing you have someone who can ask you the same question. Sorry if I overstepped.”
What was happening?
“Oh, that. No. We broke up and—”
“The hell we did,” said a deep voice behind the guy.
“Well, speak of the devil. And yes, we did.”
The guy looked over his shoulder and turned to greet Roman.
